Consumer Credit in U.S. Climbed More Than Forecast in December

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: Bloomberg

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. consumer borrowing rose in December for a third consecutive month, led by the first increase in credit-card charges in more than two years as holiday sales improved.

Credit rose by $6.1 billion to $2.41 trillion after increasing a revised $2.02 billion in November, according to Federal Reserve data issued today in Washington. Economists projected a $2.4 billion increase in the measure of credit card debt and non-revolving loans, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Borrowing peaked at $2.58 trillion in July 2008.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-07/consumer-credit-in-u-s-climbed-more-than-forecast-in-december.html

[Newest Reality]

1. Translation:

Credit = Debt.

Debt slavery on the rise! Yay! Nice, big, juicy interest rates for the sharks to feast upon.

[CountAllVotes]

2. what else can people do?

Especially those on fixed incomes that were trying to live on the interest of CDs and the like. The 1% is not cutting it, nope! People are getting no interest for what money they might have left so now they must become slaves to the debt machine.

Nice job there Bernanke! :puke:

:kick:

[trud]

3. 3% interest at some credit unions. n/t

[jtuck004]

4. While refund anticipation loans (RALS) at tax preparers cost 124% apr for 15 days. n/t

[sarcasmo]

6. 4.25 on a car loan at our credit union. One of the big banks loan officer says to me

Oh that's really good we can't beat that rate.

[PSPS]

5. Cousumer "credit?" No, it's consumer "debt." That's all there is after 30 years of zero wage growth

[happyslug]

7. Student Loans is still higher then credit card debt AND this covers the Christmas Period

Since at least June 2010, Student Loan debt has been higher then Credit Card Debt.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/student-loan-debt-outpace_n_676044.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/08/09/student-loan-debt-surpasses-credit-cards/

Thus, this is less important then it appears, we are still .07 Trillion (or 70 Billion) Dollars less then the peak Credit Card debt of July 2008. Furthermore you expect a huge increase in Credit Card Debt in December of any year, do to the Christmas season. While this is above expectations, 3.7 billion increase out of a 2.41 TRILLION (2410 Billion) Dollar debt is not that much.

Furthermore, sooner or later people can no longer delay buying things they need. Cars can only be repaired so many times before a new one is needed. Stoves, Refrigerators, Washer, Dryers and other "White" Goods fall into the same situation, you can often delay replacement, but sooner or later the high price ticket item must be purchased (Federal incentives to buy more energy efficient items is also a factor, much of this debt will be paid off when people get their income tax refund over the next four months).

[Trajan]

8. Not on my account ....

Geez ... People never learn ...

Good to see ya out and about Miss Viva ... Miss ya lots, and the rest too ... Spent some time with Organism around December .. Had a grand ole time ...

[lunatica]

9. I declared bancruptcy a few months ago and they still want to give me

credit cards. It seems like another bubble in the making.